Cairns and Tropical Gardening with Rob Pyne

Honest Politician Rob Pyne

Rob Pyne for Cairns Regional Council

Vote for Rob Pyne in Division 5 for a cleaner, climate-smart, and corruption-free Cairns. Affordable housing and sustainable initiatives are among his top priorities.

2024 Council Election Policies

Clean:

  • More Street-sweeping.
  • More public rubbish bins.
  • More Public Toilets

Climate Smart:

  • More shade trees as part of a green shady canopy across the CBD.
  • A Green Organic Food Waste Bin Service.
  • More Solar on Council buildings

Corruption Free:

  • No dodgy deals!
  • No secret Team Meetings.
  • Record all Councillor Meetings with Developers

Housing:

  • Requirement for a percentage of affordable housing for all new big developments.

Transport

  • A free City Loop Bus that would service Bungalow, Cairns North, Parramatta Park, Westcourt, and the Cairns CBD. This would greatly improve access to CBD locations, including the Cairns Hospital and Services Australia. Let’s make public transportation more accessible for everyone!

Rob Pyne is running for Division 5, which includes the suburbs of:

Rob Pyne Cairns
Rob Pyne Cairns

Who is Rob Pyne?

My name is Rob Pyne and I am a local. I worked at the Public Trustee, until breaking my neck in an accident in 1991. I then completing a BA in History and Politics and a Law Degree.

After this I worked at JCU from 2000 – 2007, resigning to campaign full-time for Council. I was successful and worked full time as the Division 3 Councillor on Cairns Regional Council.

I have served for ten years on council and one term as your local MP. This gives me the experience and confidence to speak out on behalf of division five. 

You can count on me to call out anything that is not good for our city or our council, making sure nothing gets swept under the carpet. 

As your Councillor, I would never take a backward step and be completely transparent and honest.

Rob Pyne: Keeping the Bastards Honest!

Authorised by: Rob Pyne, 183 Draper Street, Cairns.

Cairns Champion of the Underdog

At Champion of the Underdog we focus on our twin passions of Tropical Gardening (growing plants and food at home) and our tropical home city of Cairns.

Rob Pyne of Cairns is a former MP, Councillor and author of Struggle and Resistance in the Far North.

A quadriplegic since December 1991, Rob is founder of Champion of the Underdog and seeks to inspire others to join the struggle, learn and grow!

Champion of the Underdog
Champion of the Underdog

Rob Pyne’s Cairns Vision

Despite the challenges, Rob maintains a positive vision for Cairns. He says:

Cairns will fulfil its potential by making the most of our environment and geographical location. We must embrace our first people and our diversity to firmly establish Cairns as a world leader in health, education and the arts. We must be known as the home of tropical excellence in all things.

Tropical Gardening

At Champion of the Underdog our passion for urban food growing is reflected in our many and varied posts about growing tropical fruit, vegetables and herbs. Likewise, from our base in Far North Queensland we produce material about our region that we hope will be of interest both here and abroad.

People from other climates often move to the tropics and battle against the conditions. They want to grow all the food they are familiar with. However, it is better to grow fruit and vegetables that thrive naturally in the tropics. This website provides a variety of tropical fruitsvegetables and herbs to choose from.

We are fond of indoor plants. They are great for air-quality and offer other health benefits as well. As a result, we have a passion to persuade people to grow indoor plants.

Cairns Champion of the Underdog

Maintaining a worldview is important to us. However, Cairns is an interesting place and a wonderful base for our operations. Consequently, many of our articles relate to this city, known by the traditional owners as Gimuy.

On this website you will find old pictures of Cairns and interesting articles of the city’s past and present. However, these are all provided from the perspective of the underdog, who struggles against authority on behalf of the disadvantaged.

We have divided up Cairns into four parts. They are South, West, North and Central Cairns. There are a number of suburbs within these areas and we have attempted to cover them all.

Rob Pyne and Climate Change

Champion of the Underdog has focussed on climate change from as early as the 1990’s. Consequently, as eco-socialists our perspective is always based on science. Our deepest concern is the impact of climate change on ordinary people and the most disadvantaged among us.

Global warming is directly resulting in rising sea-levels. This is due to the increasing amount of meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets, and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms.

Around 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in densely inhabited coastal zones. In these areas, sea level is playing an increasing role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. These problems are exacerbated during king tides and storm surge.

Champion of the Underdog and Feeling The Heat

Our tropical location is reflected in much of our content. It influences the food we grow and how we struggle to survive in a time of climate change.

However, many of the answers we seek are universal. One of these is using government for delivering services, rather than depending on a rigged private market. This means embracing socialism. Socialism is essential if we are to reduce inequality and carbon emissions (to combat climate change).

Champion of the Disabled Underdog!

Being a person with a disability helps you to understand life as an underdog. As a result, some information on our other website includes disability tips for those who need them. Indeed, anything we can do to help those who confront the many obstacles our society puts in the way of people with a disability is time well spent.

Champion of the Underdog
Champion of the Underdog